It has been recognized for many years that acupressure, which is the application of non-invasive stimulative pressure at discrete points of the human body, particularly at recognized acupuncture points, can relieve pain or discomfort in other locations of the body. It is believed that the relief is obtained by a mechanism essentially the same as that operative in acupuncture in that the application of pressure causes the nerves to stimulate the pituitary to release pain killing and relaxing hormones known as endorphins which can also create a euphoric state of relaxation, reported to relieve stiffness, bodily tensions, nervousness, hyperactivity, depressions and insomnia.
In order to avoid the expense of the presence of a practitioner to administer the treatment, various devices have been proposed to apply a sustained pressure to selected points on the human body.
In particular, reference is made to U.S. Pat. 4,479,495 issued to Isaacson in 1984 and U.S. Pat. 5,094,227 issued to Eglauf in 1992, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein for more detailed information concerning the theory and practice of the acupressure technique.
Although, the above-mentioned patents, together with U.S. Pat. 5,423,853 issued to Lasvignes in 1995 teach devices which may possibly be suitable for particular applications, various of such devices may be relatively complex and expensive to manufacture, of restricted application or relatively difficult for an individual user to apply with the required precision to selected acupressure points and to adjust in situ to obtain the desired pressure.